A sensational conflict developed between the president and legendary war hero, General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur's troops engaged Communist Chinese forces against administration policy. Truman fired the popular General. Historians would later give him high marks for the decision. In 1952, Truman decided not to be a candidate for reelection, "When Franklin Roosevelt died, I thought there must be a million men better qualified than I to take up the presidential task, but the work was mine to do, and I had to do it, and I tried to give it everything that is in me."
